The Scarred
by Mord
Summary: Candela has always wanted power. Now, after discovering that a certain wolf pup called Sun can get her to where she wants to go, she would do anything to have her as an apprentice. Will Sun help the DarkPack lord, or will she defy her destiny?
1. Introduction

**Introduction-**

"Speak!" Candela commanded, addressing the wolf shadow that stood before her.

"I have something to tell you, M'lady." He whispered urgently, "Something that may help with your…erm, cause."

"Well get on with it!" the DarkPack lord growled impatiently.

The shadow flinched and closed its red eyes, then spoke:

"_In these dark times one will rise,_

_And with the shadows, compromise._

_A legend that will never die,_

_The gift she has, the gift to fly._

_A war is brewing, and she will win._

_But pay the price for one final sin._

_Then two among us will be slain,_

_Taking from us all our pain."_


	2. Prologue

**Prologue:**

"Our time is running out." The reddish she-wolf sighed, her yellow eyes staring out at the forest below her. The night air enveloped her in a shroud of darkness, hiding her muscular features and her large frame.

"Come now, Candela, don't say that. We will find your apprentice….we will find the one-"

"IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE I RECEIVED THAT PROPHECY!" Candela interrupted the wolf that sat beside her on the cliff with a deafening growl, making her companion shrink away, "And thanks to _you_ we still haven't found the wolf in question! I'm beginning to think that shadow fooled me…I will have him punished for this insanity!"

"M'lady…" the other wolf spoke up, his voice fearful, "If I may speak…"

"No you may not!"

He cleared his throat, ignoring her comment, and spoke anyway, "These things take time to come true. Besides, you know I already offered you my daughter. What if she's the one? You never know until you try. Perhaps you're being a little bit un…un…" he choked on the word, catching himself when the crimson she-wolf gave him a menacing glance.

"Un_what_? Unreasonable?" She shifted, her pelt bristling, "The only thing _unreasonable_ here is the fact that you want me to take that…that treacherous _thing_ under my wing to teach her my ways. Bah! I do not trust her! She is not the one!"

"But she's only a pup!"

"Pups grow!" Candela snorted, "I have a sense for these things. I can _feel _it, Badger. There's just nothing out there…I can't sense our heroine's presence."

Badger looked down at his paws, his pride stung. In the darkness he almost looked like a shadow servant, his black pelt looking ghostly in the pale moonlight. The only thing that gave him away was the bright white fur on his face, chest, and legs, along with his yellow eyes. He was an average wolf, and therefore lacked this 'sense' that Candela spoke of.

"You can't feel anything at all?" he asked quietly.

"A small tingle every now and then I suppose." She sighed, "But nothing definite. Sometimes I feel it tugging at me and then, just like that, it disappears."

"Do you know where it's coming from?"

"OF COURSE NOT YOU IDIOT!" Candela trampled the ground impatiently, her loud voice awakening a nearby sleeping owl that flew out of his tree, startled, "If I knew I wouldn't have to hire _you _now wouldn't I!"

Badger backed away again, keeping his distance from the bad humored she-wolf. "Of course, M'lady. I'm sorry; I should not have asked such a dumb question." He apologized.

"Good. You acknowledge your stupidity. But apologizing isn't going to get me any farther. I don't want apologies! I want RESULTS!" she yelled again. Badger flattened his ears against his head.

"Then what do you suggest I do?"

Candela was silent for a moment before she answered, her yellow eyes beginning to glow red with anger at her servant's incompetence. She looked up at the moon and stars that were casting an eerie pale light down onto the forest, and sighed once again.

"I want my apprentice in two years. If I don't have her by then…well, you won't like the options I have for you." Her voice was quiet and calm, but beneath them there was a tone of evil that made Badger shiver.

"Yes…master…" he bowed his head, trembling with the thought of what punishments Candela could possibly have in store for him.

"Good." The she-wolf grinned.

A sudden flash of lightning illuminated the two wolves in a beam of purple light and then disappeared, followed shortly after by the roar of thunder. A massive black cloud was on its way toward them, already making its way to the tree tops below.

"I have to get home now before that storm hits or flight will be impossible, and I hate to walk." Candela barked, noticing the oncoming weather, "I'd better not be disappointed when I return to check on your progress."

"You have my word. I will not fail you!" Badger promised.

"Hmph." Was her only reply.

Badger watched from a distance as she began to change. In less than a second, her legs became as thick as tree trunks, and two wickedly hooked black wings rose out of her back between her shoulder blades. Smaller, matching black spikes came out of her spine and made a line down her back, and her eyes turned a pupil-less red. She turned to Badger once more to give him a snarl, making him jump nervously before taking off into the sky, giving the appearance of some deformed bird from a nightmare. Even the lightning seemed to avoid her as she turned into nothing more than a little black dot in the sky, flying above the clouds.

Badger let out the breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding and silently cursed at himself.

"Where am I going to find the chosen one? And I only have two years to do it! Gah!" He found a nearby boulder and hit his head against it, as if punishing himself for being a failure.

Another bolt of lightning filled the sky with static tension. The thunder crashed so hard that it knocked the muscular he-wolf off of his paws. He shook himself and stood up shakily, looking down below to see what happened.

Something had been struck by lightning- he could see it now. It was a tall, hollow tree in the center of the Dark Forest in flames. Black smoke reached up to the sky like a writhing animal. The storm had come, and it had reached him much faster than he had expected. To him, it was a sign that he should get back to DreadPack before he got caught up in all of it.

As he prepared to make his way back home in the opposite direction, some movement at the foot of the cliff caught his attention. It was a pair of red eyes. But his heart began to beat again when he realized that it wasn't Candela…just one of those repulsive shadow servants of hers that lurked in the darkness. He was planning on ignoring it at first, after all, why should he stop to speak with a lowly shadow? But its eyes were clearly following him, making his skin crawl.

"Sir…" he heard a female voice calling to him and froze in his tracks. Shadows rarely spoke, usually only to prophesize or say something ominous. Turning his head slowly, Badger lifted his upper lip in a silent, annoyed snarl.

"What is it?" he asked, irritated.

But the shadow did not reply. It only disappeared in the blackness, leaving behind a trail of ghostly mist. Badger hesitated and looked back to the direction he had to go, knowing that he could not afford a delay if he was to get out of the dangerous tempest that was now almost on top of him.

"Follow, my lord." The voice echoed in his ears. Badger realized now that he had no other choice. It could be important. He turned and padded off in the direction of the storm, following the trail of mist that the ghostly wolf had left for him to follow.

"This had better be good." He grumbled.


	3. Chapter One

**Chapter One- Lost**

I knew this wasn't a good idea.

The sound of cracking twigs and dry leaves was getting closer to us with every step we took, even if we were running faster than we've ever run before. I could feel breath on the back of my neck; my heart began beating wildly against my chest. Despite the fact that I was literally running for my life, time seemed to slow down and it felt as if my muscles were being weighed down by some unseen force that wanted to cripple me.

We were not fast enough. The undergrowth snatched at our pelts and pulled at us as we raced by, thorny hands reached out to hold us as their prisoners. Our legs were not long enough. Our bodies were not strong enough. There was no way we could outrun the predator. It certainly seemed as if this was the end of us.

I heard a horrifying roar and suddenly I was thrown onto my back, my paws getting tangled on a vine. The pursuer's hot breath was now right on my face. I screamed in horror when my blue eyes met two black beady ones full of hunger.

"Sun!" I heard my brother's cry of alarm but could not look away from the animal that would soon make me his next meal.

The bear roared again in triumph and rose to stand on its hind-legs like a man, readying itself for its final attack on me. I knew it was only a matter of moments before all of that weight came crashing down on me, and its powerful jaws would close around my throat. I closed my eyes and waited, my whole three weeks of life flashing before me, but to my surprise I heard the great beast let out a grunt of annoyance.

I dared to look and saw a small black form leap at the bear's face, nipping at the end of its nose. Night! My brother had returned for me! The bear backed up, growling in rage and I scrambled to my paws, taking the opportunity of confusion to start running again. My brother joined me at my side, just barely missing an angry swing from the bear's sharp claws, and the blundering bear continued its pursuit.

I didn't know how much longer we could continue like this. At the time, leaving the den while our parents were away sounded like it would be fun, but I now knew why Maverick and Deer had told us that the forest was a dangerous place, and I wished that I had listened to them. Now they weren't here to defend us, and they would come home to our hollow tree howling for their lost pups, not knowing that we were eaten up by a bear all because we had disobeyed. I was running out of breath and adrenaline. Night wasn't much better off, being smaller and slower than me. One of us had to fall eventually and only then would the predator be satisfied.

"Sun! We aren't going to make it!" I heard my brother's panicked voice.

"Don't stop now!" I panted, "Try to find someplace where it can't get to us!"

The idea sounded simple enough. After all, we were small and the bear was big. There should have been many places where we could go where it could not follow. But neither one of us wanted to risk slowing down; and our fear and panic wouldn't let us think clearly. I tried to focus, my eyes searching for a place where we could hide.

"The fallen tree!" my brother called, "Quick!"

I turned my head to see where he was headed and sighed internally with relief. Close by was an old fallen tree, its bark had been hollowed out, and the trunk was thick enough for us to squeeze inside- but it would keep the bear out. Another roar of anger came from behind me and I doubled my pace, making for the place Night had found.

We scrambled into the center of the rotted bark, Night before me, the smell of moist dirt hitting our nostrils. The bear was at our heels. I was too frightened to complain about how small the space was or how the rough texture of the bark scratched at me, but I hoped that soon we would be able to get out of here and that the bear would lose interest.

The enraged bear was not done with us yet, however. Unfortunately it was not stupid enough to give up and walk away. Blinded by hunger and rage, it didn't even stop to think. I whimpered as it lifted one massive paw into the air and came swinging down hard on the fallen tree, smashing one end of it into pieces, leaving me exposed and trembling with my brother cowering behind me. We tried to back up, getting as far away as we could from the beast, but we were running out of room and I could feel the trunk begin to tilt dangerously as all of our weight came down on one end.

"Sun…" My brother's voice came from behind me while I stared at our would-be killer in horror, "I think we should…"

But before he got to finish warning me, our hiding spot suddenly gave way and I felt myself sliding backwards down a slope. We hadn't realized before that the fallen trunk was balanced precariously on the very top of a steep hill, and our combined weight on the one end was enough to make it unbalanced. We went tumbling down as the log began to roll, accumulating speed, making us dizzy and confused. The bear was left behind with a stupefied expression on its face, one paw still lifted in the air ready to take another swing at its prey.

I heard a crunch and suddenly I was thrown into one side of the rotted tree along with Night, painfully hitting my left shoulder. We had come to a stop, our ride ended by two older trees that caught the falling debris with us in it. Trying to figure out which way was up, I waited for the spinning in my vision to subside before I carefully crawled out of the log and became steady on my feet. Night stumbled about himself, and a few moments of welcome silence passed between us before we felt good enough to speak to each other.

"We're alive!" cheered my brother after a time, the knowledge of our survival was beginning to come to him and the shock was slowly wearing away. He turned to me with a bright smile that reached up even into his amber eyes, a grin that I returned.

"Yes, we are." I replied, at a loss for better words, "It was all awfully lucky I suppose." I concluded, because I knew that, under different circumstances, we would have surely been killed.

"Well then, I'm glad we have luck."

"No kidding."

Sitting down at the base of one of the large trees that had caught us while we were spinning before, we looked at each other and savored our victory. Would the bear come back? Would something else come after us? Would we ever get home? As I thought about it, the only thing that kept coming back to me was how glad I was to have at least gotten this far, and all of my worries left me. The real question was- Who cared? We were invincible! Our answers would soon come.

Night was not so dismissive with his thoughts, however, because I soon saw his happy countenance shift into a look of worry.

"We're lost." He barked quietly, looking around us.

I looked at my injured shoulder and noticed that it had begun to bleed, because it had been scraped. Red blood oozed out of the wound, staining my golden fur and making it clump together. Reaching down to give it a quick lick, my feeling of invincibility soon wore off. My brother was right. We were lost. And now I was injured.

He too noticed my wound and sighed. We weren't safe yet, not by a long shot. Not until we were back home, at the hollow tree. Getting there would not be easy, even if we weren't lost. My bleeding was sure to attract predators- like that bear- and our overall vulnerability and lack of knowledge would make us an easy target.

"We could try following our own scents back home…" I offered.

"And risk running into that bear again? No thanks!" Night shook his head fervently, "Maybe we should just try and find our way home by recognizing things. Does any of this look familiar?" he asked me, hoping that I would have an answer.

"The only thing that looks familiar is the way we came from." I sighed, shrugging in defeat, "We've never been away from home. How _could_ we recognize anything?"

This was truly a dilemma.

In the end we decided to go back the way we came, but we did wait a little bit first, so that we were sure that bear wasn't still hanging around. Following the trail of scents that we had left behind, I could smell our fear as we fled from the fierce predator earlier. It was not easy to ignore the mounting feeling of dread that gripped at me, and I began to relive the earlier events.

My shoulder hurt more now than ever, forcing me to pad slower than Night, making me lag behind. I even had to limp sometimes, but I tried hard not to, for the sake of my brother. He too had a look of fear on his face, and I wanted to be brave for him. The two of us trudged along at an awfully slow pace; partly from exhaustion, partly from fear.

As we reached the top of the hill where we had fallen I froze in my tracks. Was it just me, or did I hear something in the trees? Night stopped too, his body tense. We both stood there nervously for a couple of seconds.

"Night…do you think…" I began.

"No, there's no way that bear could still be here…or could it?" His voice was tight.

We exchanged a glance and held our ground, ears flattened against our heads, waiting. We couldn't hear any other sounds other than the chirping of birds, but I could sense a presence. I knew we were being followed.

"If it _is _the bear, it must have our scent now." I whispered.

"I know. I know. Shhh." He replied, "Maybe if we don't move we won't attract it."

Suddenly we heard the sound of rustling undergrowth, the sound grew closer and closer, louder and louder! There was definitely something here and it was headed in our direction!

"Night I think we should run!" I cried, my paws already taking me far away from the scene, adrenaline fueling me to move fast even with my injury.

Without a word he shot after me, the two of us resuming our role as fleeing prey once again.

What happened next was so fast that I didn't even have time to think. Something caught me from behind, grabbing me by the tail with sharp teeth and pulled me back. A large paw pushed me onto my side and held me down while I squirmed, defenseless, on the ground. I couldn't see my brother. I couldn't see a thing. My eyes were shut again, like when the bear had almost gotten me. I screamed and thrashed in vain. Whatever was holding me down was too strong for me to take. Tears ran down my face as I cried for whatever it was to let me go, but my pleas were not answered.

A deep voice called down to me in my panic, "Sun! Sun! Calm down!" the voice was familiar, but somehow it filled me with even more dread.

I heard Night whimpering not far off, another more soothing voice was speaking with him. Another voice I recognized.

I let myself go limp and opened my eyes. Standing over me was a tall, black wolf with amber eyes. He was a version of Night, only much larger. To my left, with my brother, was a tall, tan German shepherd with tense blue eyes that kept shifting from me to Night restlessly. We had been caught.

Our parents had found us.


End file.
